Defending the Ether: The British Response

Abstract

The british response to the theory of relativity during the years 1905–1911 had a different character from the responses we have analyzed in Germany and France. For the first two years of the period, there was virtually no recognition of the theory in the literature. Following that, there was some controversy, not as much as in the German literature. However, there was not the wide diversity of opinion, the elaboration, or the debate so characteristic of German response. The acceptance of the theory hinged upon making it compatible with the concept of the ether. As paradoxical as that might be, there was almost unanimous agreement within the British physics community about such a program. Almost all British physicists who worked in electrodynamics behaved in similar ways about these issues.

Keywords

Nineteenth Century Special Theory British Association Modern View German Physicist

Oliver Lodge, My Philosophy: Reporting My Views of the Many Functions of the Ether of Space (London, 1933), preface.Google Scholar

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Oliver Lodge, “The Ether and Its Functions,” Delivered at the London Institution, December 28, 1882. Cf. Oliver Lodge, Modern Views of Electricity (1st ed., London, 1889) pp. 328–332. The same statements may be found in the 2nd (1892) and 3rd (1907) editions of the book.Google Scholar

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Oliver Lodge, “The Ether and Its Functions,” Delivered at the London Institution, December 338, 1882 Ibid.Google Scholar